My Holiday Bonus Was a $5 Million IOU! I Quit and Their Company Collapsed novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Renewal Day

Hattie hadn't called to talk.

She had slid her phone into her cardigan pocket with the line open, and Ansel put it on speaker on the console between us.

What came through was muffled and close.

A chair rolled.

A man cleared his throat.

Hattie said, "Coffee's by the window," to nobody in particular.

Then my mother, soft and level, in the voice she used for microphones.

"Gentlemen, thank you for driving up. I understand Mr. Strandberg couldn't join us. Given the unfortunate circumstances with my daughter."

"Ms. Sjoberg," said a man I'd never heard. "Strandberg Home will not be renewing the Sunday Table agreement with Sjoberg Creative."

Nothing came through the phone at all.

"Sunday Table belongs to Mara Sjoberg," the lawyer said. "She opened it in her own name. The platform's records show it, and your company has never held a transfer."

"My daughter is unwell," my mother said. "I wrote to you about it."

"Mr. Strandberg has spent two weeks in her company. He finds her entirely well."

Ansel shifted in his seat beside me.

"This is my deal," Luther said, and his voice cracked up high. "I built that relationship. Three years of dinners with Ansel."

"Mr. Sjoberg," the second lawyer said, "Mr. Strandberg has never had dinner with you. He asked me to say you may stop telling people otherwise."

Ansel made a sound that was nearly a laugh, and I put my hand over my mouth.

"There is also a hold from your bank on any money owed to your company," the first lawyer said. "As of this morning there is none to pay."

"Without that account I can't make payroll on the fifteenth," my mother said.

For the first time her voice wasn't soft.

"Sixty people," she said. "Do you understand what you're doing to sixty people?"

"Constance."

That was Hattie, much louder, because she had stood up.

"Hattie, sit down."

"No," Hattie said.

A door banged open, and the noise of the office came into the phone, keyboards and a printer and somebody's radio.

"Everyone," Hattie called out. "Everyone, stop typing."

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